Japanese phone to use in Australia

I am in Australia, and I need a phone through which I can manage my emails when I'm out of the office, but I also need to be able to read and write emails in Japanese.
All of the local mobile support centers (except iphone) that I've called say that I won't be able to read/write Japanese text on a locally purchased mobile. One of them suggested I purchase a phone (unlocked) in Japan, pop in an Australian SIM card, and use it here.
Has anyone out there actually done this? Or does anyone have any other solutions?

I am in the same situation. Iphone can apparently do it. Just hook up your computer email address to be forwarded to the phone (apparently iphones here don't have their own email addresses).
Other than that, as far as I know, no other phones here are capable of it.
Not sure about using an Australian Sim card in a Japanese phone. Sounds workable though.

One of them suggested I purchase a phone (unlocked) in Japan, pop in an Australian SIM card, and use it here.

Japanese carriers do not sell unlocked phones, so that isn't even an option. I've also looked into other methods of unlocking my own Japanese phones and its pretty hit or miss depending on the model. Definitely do your research before even heading down this road, and keep in mind that Japanese phones are tied into the Japanese network at a hardware level and may be severely crippled on a foreign network even when unlocked.

Really an iphone is the easiest way to do what you want to do (and I think the only phone in Australia that does it out of the box), but if you're iphone adverse then how about looking into the blackberry, windows mobile 6.5, or android based phones. Non-Japanese models of these phones don't seem to support Japanese input natively so you'll have to hack them. I've done stuff like this in the past and its fairly easy, and it has the potential to be easier or cheaper than obtaining and unlocking a Japanese phone.

Thanks to Smoke and yllwsmrf for your responses.
I have no real aversion to iphone (just wanted to know if there are any other options), and i don't know the first thing about hacking phones. I have used a friend's iphone in Australia to send and receive emails in Japanese, so I know this works. So it looks like iphone may be the easiest and most reliable way of doing what i want.
I'll post back here if i encounter any problems.
Thanks again. :) Sam

There is ONE phone I have seen at Akihabara that is SIM unlocked.(but only some of them, and only in one shop)
As I recall, it was a Softbank 830C.

iPhone might be a great phone, but is not the only option.

I'm sure there must be Nokia phones available in Australia. Any Nokia phone of the N series will allow you to write and receive mails in japanese with a simple software installation, and it'll be much cheaper than an iPhone.

I'm using a Nokia N78 and it covers all my Japanese necessities for sending and receiving e-mail.

only disadvantage is that there won't be hiragana written on the keys, so you'll have to be guessing at first. i was used to the japanese keyboard and still remember the position of every character so that is not a problem to me.